Use of natural fluorescent triacyglycerols from Parinari glaberrimum to detect low lipase activity in Brassica napus seedlings

Lipases (triacylglycerol acyl hydrolass EC 3.1.1.3) are defined as enzymes that catalyse the hydrolysis of triacylglycerols, releasing long-chain fatty acids. Germinating oilseeds have been explored as a possible source of lipases for biotechnological processing of oils and fats. However, purification and sensitive assays to detect a true lipase activity in plant cellular homogenates and culture media are required. The main aim of this study was to design a convenient, specific, sensitive and continuous lipase activity assay using natural long-chain triacylglycerols (TAGs). Oil was extracted from Parinari glaberrimum seed kernels and the purified TAGs were used as a substrate for detecting low levels of lipase activities. An increase in the fluorescence was observed, which is due to the parinaric acid released by various lipase activities. This increase in the fluorescence intensity is linear with time and proportional to the amount of lipase added. This new method, performed under non-oxidative conditions, was applied successfully to detect low lipase levels in crude protein extracts from plant seeds.Keywords: Brassica napus, fluorescent lipids, lipase assay, plant lipasesAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(23), pp. 3719-372

The influence of project structural factors on the time management of electronic engineering projects in the south western Cape

Bibliography: leaf 69.Time management is certainly the most invaluable tool in projecting time-phased resource utilisation requirements as well as providing a basis for tracking performance. It allows optimal integration of all the resources in a project such that synergy is produced. Consequently, an effective time management system is crucial to the success of a project. This research highlights the major requirements for setting up an effective time management system for electronic engineering companies in the South Western Cape. It includes a literature review which shows the influence of the project structural factors on time management and the project performance. The research also uses an industrial survey to uncover the current impact of the project structural factors on electronic engineering projects. The effectiveness of alternative time control system is examined as well. From the findings of this research study, it has been possible to set up guidelines for selecting time control techniques which are pertinent to the current project structural factors of electronic engineering projects

Survey on relational database watermarking techniques

Digital watermarking has been in multimedia data use over the past years. Recently it has become applicable in relational database system not only to secure copyright ownership but also to ensure data contents integrity. Further, it is used in locating tampered and modified places. However, the watermarking relational database has its own requirements, challenges, attacks and limitations. This paper, surveys recent database watermarking techniques focusing on the importance of watermarking relational database, the difference between watermarking relational database and multimedia objects, the issues in watermarking relational database, type of attacks on watermarked database, classifications, distortion introduced and the embedded information. The comparative study shows that watermarking relational database can be an effective tool for copyright protection, tampered detection, and hacker tracing while maintaining the integrity of data contents. In addition, this study explores the current issues in watermarking relational database as well as the significant differences between watermarking multimedia data and relational database contents. Finally, it provides a classification of database watermarking techniques according to the way of selecting the candidate key attributes and tuples, distortion introduced and decoding methods used

Do Multinational enterprises push up wages of domestic firms in the Italian Manufacturing sector?

This paper analyzes the effects of foreign direct investment on wages paid by domestic firms in the Italian manufacturing sector over the period 2002–2007. In particular, the authors investigate the im-pact of multinational enterprises on wages paid by local firms which operate in the same industry, known and horizontal wage spillovers, or have linkages with multinational enterprises in both downstream and upstream industries, known as vertical wage spillovers. By using a large panel dataset, consisting of 551,000 observations, the authors find evidence of wage spillovers only at inter-industry level and, more specifically, for those firms who supply their goods to multinational enterprises, described as backward wage spillovers. Moreover, findings suggest that the wage spillover effect is strongly affected by the technological gap between local and foreign firms: only workers employed in domestic firms with a low-medium technological absorptive capacity seem to benefit from the presence of multinational enterprises in terms of higher wages

Quantitative Electroencephalography in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

The goal of this study is to compare the brain connectivity patterns of autistic patients with those of children who are developing normally and analyzing quantitative electroencephalography in children with autism. The study included 50 children who were developing normally and 60 preschoolers who met the DSM-V criteria for autism spectrum disorder. Routine and quantitative electroencephalography were carried out on each subject, as well as a Childhood Autism Rating Scale. The electroencephalograms of 76.67% of autistic children were normal; 6.67% showed focal changes, and 16.67% showed generalized changes. While the alpha power in the central and temporal areas is significantly lower in autistic children, it is unchanged in the frontal and parieto-occipital regions. Children with autism have significantly higher absolute delta and theta band activity both globally and locally. It was shown that the total and regional absolute delta and theta power activity had a significant positive correlation with the disease severity score. Quantitative electroencephalography is a more effective tool for assessing and diagnosing children with autism spectrum disorder because it shows abnormalities in all autistic children. A correlation exists between the quantitative electroencephalography data and the disease severity score

A Framework for Fire Safety Management in School Facilities

Schools are high-risk type of facilities in fire emergencies. This requires the implementation of safety measures, which comprise administrative and operational efforts to mitigate the occurrence of fire accidents. The review of literature indicated the lack of practical approaches that can be easily adopted for safety management in school facilities. This paper presents the development and implementation of a generic framework for fire safety management in school facilities. A literature review in the domain of fire safety in schools was performed to comprehend various knowledge areas in this context. A generic framework for fire safety management in school facilities was developed. The framework was implemented in a secondary school, located in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, as a case study, to illustrate its applicability. An action plan was developed to improve the level of fire safety in the school facility, under review. The findings indicated that the framework provides a methodological and systematic approach for assessing the level of fire safety in schools, as well as determine the possible actions for improving the overall safety condition in such facilities. The paper provides a useful focus for practitioners and researchers concerned with fire safety in the educational workplace

Lipopolysaccharide-induced suppression of airway Th2 responses does not require IL-12 production by dendritic cells

The prevalence of atopic asthma, a Th2-dependent disease, is reaching epidemic proportions partly due to improved hygiene in industrialized countries. There is an inverse correlation between the level of environmental endotoxin exposure and the prevalence of atopic sensitization. As dendritic cells (DC) have been implicated in causing sensitization to inhaled Ag, we studied the effect of endotoxin on Th2 development induced by bone marrow DC in vitro and by intratracheal injection in vivo, with particular emphasis on the role played by the polarizing cytokine IL-12. Bone marrow-derived DC stimulated with Escherichia coli O26:B6 LPS produced IL-12p70 for a limited period of time, after which production became refractory to further stimulation with CD40 ligand, a phenomenon previously called "exhaustion." The level of IL-12 production of DC did not correlate with Th1 development, as exhausted OVA-pulsed DC were still capable of shifting the cytokine pattern of responding OVA-specific Th cells toward Th1 in vitro and in vivo. When mice were first immunized by intratracheal injection of OVA-DC and subsequently challenged with OVA aerosol, prior in vitro stimulation of DC with LPS reduced the development of airway eosinophilia and Th2 cytokine production. Most surprisingly, the capacity of LPS to reduce Th2-dependent eosinophilic airway inflammation was IL-12-independent altogether, as IL-12p40 knockout DC had a similar reduced capacity to prime for Th2 responses. These results suggest that LPS reduces sensitization to inhaled Ag by reducing DC-driven Th2 development, but that IL-12 is not necessary for this effect